"Bush finally realized there can be patriotic protesters," Jowers said, something that could eventually help reverse the trend identified in the poll results as people decided they couldn't call themselves patriotic "in the sense it was being defined by their government."

That drop in patriotic feeling does not mean, however, that Utahns feel the administration's efforts haven't been effective. The poll found that 73 percent believed the country's anti-terrorism efforts have made the United States safer than it was on Sept. 11, 2001.

And 60 percent of Utahns polled said they did not believe it was likely they or someone they know would someday become a victim of a terrorist act on U.S. soil. Around one-third of respondents over the past three years have said their anxiety levels have decreased.

"Utah still supports its president more than any other state in the country, and this poll seems to bear out that it has faith in the way he's protecting us from terrorism," Jowers said. "But as in the rest of the country, there are people here who have issues."

That's inevitable, he said, in the long-term aftermath of the attacks.

"Nobody wants another 9/11 attack to occur, and yet we are conflicted about how far the administration has to go to protect us. Every step the administration takes in the name of keeping us safe will cause questions."

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